Trends in rainfall and extreme temperatures in northwestern Mexico

Abstract

The impact of global warming across northwestern Mexico is difficult to discern because long-term climatic data series are lacking, and this semi-arid region is subject to strong seasonal variability. Using data between 1922 and 2004 from 55 weather stations located in the State of Sonora, the Baja California Peninsula, and some stations in the United States near the Mexican border, we analyzed trends observed for weather variables. The magnitude and statistical significance of trends were determined, using the least squares regression procedure. Microregional series were delimited after applying varimax rotated empirical orthogonal functional analysis to the weather series. The limits between the 9 microregions were defined by considering a rotated factor loading ≥0.6. Series with significant trends were correlated with 5 different climatic indices: Pacific Decadal Oscillation, Atlantic Multi-decadal Oscillation, Southern Oscillation Index, North Atlantic Oscillation Index, and values of 700 hPa geopotential height anomalies. Results show that northwestern Mexico has high meteorological heterogeneity, as observed in spatial and seasonal variability of precipitation and temperature. Different trends were found across the region. Correlation analyses indicate that trends in several variables are associated with inter-decadal changes in the Pacific and the Atlantic, as well as with variations of the 700 hPa atmospheric flow patterns, changes in sea surface temperatures, penetration of extratropical fronts, and, for the State of Baja California Sur, higher incidence of tropical cyclones.

Incremento de la temperatura ambiental y su posible asociación al suicidio en Baja California Sur (BCS) 1985-2008

“…Este cambio climático ya ha sido reportado previamente por Gutiérrez-Ruacho. 11 A nivel internacional existe evidencia del cambio climático y su relación con el evento suicida. En Europa los inviernos se han tornado menos fríos con un incremento de los suicidios durante esta época.…”

“…El 91% de los casos (n=529; promedio anual 22) correspondieron a suicidios realizados por hombres con una tasa promedio anual de 16.3 en cada 100 000 hombres (rango: 4.58 a 24.17) (cuadro 1). Las mujeres fueron más jóvenes, con un promedio de 29.1 años (desviación estándar; DE=13.3), con respecto a los hombres en los cuales la edad promedio al momento del evento fue de 37.3 años (DE=17.1) (F (1,11) =12.00; p<0.01).…”

Temperature Trend Analysis in the North Pacific Watershed in Mexico

“…Despite divergent trends were found for all the proposed variables ( Table 3), in a general context, the annual trends here described coincide with the prevailing scenario of increasing temperatures in most of the globe [35] and regionally for northwest Mexico [36]. For TMin, the number of stations with increasing or decreasing trends is virtually the same, however an outstanding difference was found in the number of stations with significant increasing trends that almost doubles the number of significant stations with decreasing trends.…”

Eletricidade para o bombeamento de água subterrânea: limitações e oportunidades para respostas adaptativas às mudanças climáticas

“…Ao mesmo tempo, é provável que a reposição das águas subterrâneas diminua, com base nas projeções de quedas de precipitação no inverno, que é quando ocorre boa parte da reposição em regiões áridas (Flint & Flint, 2007). Portanto, os efeitos combinados de aumentos de temperatura, queda e maior variabilidade da precipitação e reduções nas precipitações hibernais (Gutierrez-Ruacho et al, 2010) levarão a um aumento do uso de água subterrânea nas regiões centro e norte do México.…”